AdorableLaurie
2021
Pleasantly surprised at how straight forward the game was. The game didn't waste my time with convoluted puzzles for the entirety of the main path, mostly quick combat arena to test your reflexes and an very light key/lever hunting. It did a very good job teaching me the basics for the optional content where you really have to be observant to understand the cleverly hidden paths and environmental puzzles, especially for the post-ending secret hunting.
2016
This review contains spoilers
This game resonates with me immensely in a way that's hard to describe.
While growing up in the late 90's, PC games tended to be much easier to screw around with by going into its install folder and experimenting with .ini files and changing some values here and there and see how the game would react to these changes. In a way it made you feel like a god that had total control over this one software you bought and you were able to bend the rules to have things go your way. I distinctively remember having a hard time with Command and Conquer Tiberian Sun and then going into the game files to give some units a boost in power by changing the values in a config file so I could beat a particular mission, then resorting the original values later on so I could at least try to go as far as i can without cheating my way through the entire thing.
Ever since that moment, it has become quite the ritual for me to take a look inside the files of any game and see if I can find anything interesting or exploitable. I'm not necessarily looking for a way to cheat anymore but I find it rather fun to just be able to go outside of what the creator intended you to experience. This is also where i got my first hand experience at finding extra files that I wasn't really supposed to see, like unused content or entire game assets that you missed or couldn't see clearly in the context it was used during gameplay.
OneShot taps into this weird obsession of mine and RUNS with it. From the very moment you start the game you get this uneasy feeling that the game knows too much... like your name, without asking you at any point to create a profile or anything like any other game would typically do. Having the game directly talk to you through alert windows instead of in-game dialog box made me realize that for once the role got reversed and the game was enjoying screwing around with my computer.
From that point forward it felt like a battle between me and whatever entity inside the game was doing that, and I felt bad for Niko being caught in the crossfire. Still, I didn't fully realize the extent until that one pop-up window asked me if "I knew what to do". It's almost as if it knew me personally and was inviting me to not hold back.
I thoroughly enjoyed solving all these meta-puzzles until the end, but something felt wrong. While it felt like I was in a battle with this entity, it sure did a lot to help me out. It felt like it was taunting me, right up until the very end, almost like I was still constricted by its rules and being told to do more than just following its guidance. After the final choice and being locked out of even opening the game, something didn't feel right. There was so many area's that I wanted to explore and never could, and I assumed that I would go back there later or have to start the game over from the beginning. I was definitely NOT done with this, I refuse to be stuck with that bitter choice you have to make. I will save all of them, for I am the god of this world.
I started by digging around the install folder and realized there were so many character portraits in there for people I haven't met, surely the game WANTS me to break the one shot rule. It's telling me to do my thing, and my god was it satisfying to figure it all out.
I absolutely loved the true ending. By the end of it all I grew attached to all the characters, and even if the taunting from the entity initially ticked me off, by the end it felt more like playful rivalry than disdain. They had noble intentions and only wanted Niko to live and go home, just as much as I was.
The game also hits me close to home with it's themes. I'm autistic and most of the time, game characters feels like real people with their own will to me, and I definitely felt this the entire way through OneShot. It truly feels as if Niko is a real person that managed to escape my PC and finally go home, while the rest of the cast are stuck inside my computer. It makes me afraid of uninstalling this game, and I wish there was a way to boot the game just to check in on them from time to time.
I don't know where you are now Niko, but I will never forget you. What an incredible piece of art this game is.
While growing up in the late 90's, PC games tended to be much easier to screw around with by going into its install folder and experimenting with .ini files and changing some values here and there and see how the game would react to these changes. In a way it made you feel like a god that had total control over this one software you bought and you were able to bend the rules to have things go your way. I distinctively remember having a hard time with Command and Conquer Tiberian Sun and then going into the game files to give some units a boost in power by changing the values in a config file so I could beat a particular mission, then resorting the original values later on so I could at least try to go as far as i can without cheating my way through the entire thing.
Ever since that moment, it has become quite the ritual for me to take a look inside the files of any game and see if I can find anything interesting or exploitable. I'm not necessarily looking for a way to cheat anymore but I find it rather fun to just be able to go outside of what the creator intended you to experience. This is also where i got my first hand experience at finding extra files that I wasn't really supposed to see, like unused content or entire game assets that you missed or couldn't see clearly in the context it was used during gameplay.
OneShot taps into this weird obsession of mine and RUNS with it. From the very moment you start the game you get this uneasy feeling that the game knows too much... like your name, without asking you at any point to create a profile or anything like any other game would typically do. Having the game directly talk to you through alert windows instead of in-game dialog box made me realize that for once the role got reversed and the game was enjoying screwing around with my computer.
From that point forward it felt like a battle between me and whatever entity inside the game was doing that, and I felt bad for Niko being caught in the crossfire. Still, I didn't fully realize the extent until that one pop-up window asked me if "I knew what to do". It's almost as if it knew me personally and was inviting me to not hold back.
I thoroughly enjoyed solving all these meta-puzzles until the end, but something felt wrong. While it felt like I was in a battle with this entity, it sure did a lot to help me out. It felt like it was taunting me, right up until the very end, almost like I was still constricted by its rules and being told to do more than just following its guidance. After the final choice and being locked out of even opening the game, something didn't feel right. There was so many area's that I wanted to explore and never could, and I assumed that I would go back there later or have to start the game over from the beginning. I was definitely NOT done with this, I refuse to be stuck with that bitter choice you have to make. I will save all of them, for I am the god of this world.
I started by digging around the install folder and realized there were so many character portraits in there for people I haven't met, surely the game WANTS me to break the one shot rule. It's telling me to do my thing, and my god was it satisfying to figure it all out.
I absolutely loved the true ending. By the end of it all I grew attached to all the characters, and even if the taunting from the entity initially ticked me off, by the end it felt more like playful rivalry than disdain. They had noble intentions and only wanted Niko to live and go home, just as much as I was.
The game also hits me close to home with it's themes. I'm autistic and most of the time, game characters feels like real people with their own will to me, and I definitely felt this the entire way through OneShot. It truly feels as if Niko is a real person that managed to escape my PC and finally go home, while the rest of the cast are stuck inside my computer. It makes me afraid of uninstalling this game, and I wish there was a way to boot the game just to check in on them from time to time.
I don't know where you are now Niko, but I will never forget you. What an incredible piece of art this game is.
2022
This review contains spoilers
I love the concept of this game and im impressed it runs on an honest to god GameBoy, however i'm not the type of person that has the patience of going through the 20+ endings it has to offer.
I tried my hardest to stick with it and managed to discover a lot of areas, but it does get a bit repetitive after a few hours. Part of me wishes there would be a faster way to swap between the possible routes, because even with the secret dev room where you can pick the chapter, elections result and job it was still tedious to redo the entire beginning section and warp to a later chapter just for a chance to see what picking a different choice would do.
I got 7 of the endings and of course I didnt manage to stop the machine, which leaves me bummed out cause I really wanted to figure it out, but the repetitions exhausted me before I could.
Still, big recommendation to at least try it out. I enjoyed my time with it
I tried my hardest to stick with it and managed to discover a lot of areas, but it does get a bit repetitive after a few hours. Part of me wishes there would be a faster way to swap between the possible routes, because even with the secret dev room where you can pick the chapter, elections result and job it was still tedious to redo the entire beginning section and warp to a later chapter just for a chance to see what picking a different choice would do.
I got 7 of the endings and of course I didnt manage to stop the machine, which leaves me bummed out cause I really wanted to figure it out, but the repetitions exhausted me before I could.
Still, big recommendation to at least try it out. I enjoyed my time with it
1999
Liked the demo of this game a lot as a kid. Gave the full release a try and yeah it's ok. I enjoyed myself for the 50~ish levels I played but I don't intend on completing it. Worth a try if you're into puzzle games.
Very interesting game gameplay-wise. I love how it switches up from the classic JRPG formula of the time to give you an unique experience. It's horribly balanced though. It's starts real rough but after and hour you're unstoppable. Managed to up all my human character stats to 99 bu the halfway point and it simply felt too easy to engage with the rest of the mechanics. Then it takes a deep dive again and becomes incredibly hard for the last stretch. Normal encounters simply wrecks you, you have very limited space in your inventory and even 15 elixirs aren't enough to arrive at the top with remaining healing before the final boss. Monster character are absolutely useless the entire way through, and while mutant are better at the start, the random selection of spell you get every time you gain a "level" are absolutely horrendous, then it takes spells away from you for some reason..... you effectively never use those spells a single time and end up with just 4 useable slots. Couldn't beat the final boss with my team comp and you can't trace your steps back to a shop, so you're just stuck here.
Still, I enjoyed most of the experience and the plot twist at the end was surprising for a '89 rpg. I'm looking forward to play other SaGa games in the future, hopefully with better balancing.
Still, I enjoyed most of the experience and the plot twist at the end was surprising for a '89 rpg. I'm looking forward to play other SaGa games in the future, hopefully with better balancing.
1995
Interesting gameplay loop, very short and sweet. The OST is good and the artstyle is just so adorable........ Atlus should have ported that game to the 3DS the depth effect works so well
This game is fascinating. I have no idea what compelled someone to make a Robin Hood role playing game but I owned this since I was a child and I kinda liked how it switches up playstyles every few minutes. I decided to play it through its entirety and it's rather short: barely 4 hours, which is a plus in my book because it ended just as it was about to overstay it's welcome.
Still, i'm pretty confused by everything about it. The menu has a "Talk" and "Take" options that doesn't serve any purpose because those can be accomplished with the A button. There is also a "look" option that accomplishes the same as "search" but doesn't reveal any hidden items. So only "Search" and "Player" have an actual function. Speaking of search, it's only required in the first room, then it's only used for optional hidden items, but also they are so rare it's not really worth the trouble. In the inventory screen there are slots for head, pants and boots equipments, but you never find any through the entire game. There are also two "drop" buttons that functions exactly the same. The game is incredibly easy, so I'm not sure what's the point of giving armor/weapons to your party members considering they only show up during the team battles, and in those they get a sword that one-shot every enemy regardless if they are unarmed or equipped with a bow. So that's another useless feature. Then there's the "Agility" stat, which i couldn't tell a difference if it was low or high at any point.
Speaking of party members, for most of the game you have 4, but for some reason there were only 3 showing up in my party menu. At some point I declined to duel one of my soon-to-be party member and it just..... kinda glitched and teleported me to the next story sequence, skipping the dialog that adds them to my party. It doesn't matter tho because they show up during team battle anyway, and since currently equipped items doesn't matter.... well it didn't change much except i was lacking 6 inventory slots to stock potions and food.
Not that it matters anyway cause my inventory was full 90% of the game, and everytime i encountered a new healing item i would forcibly use the lower tier one on Robin despite only missing 5hp. I ended the game with 11 extra potions.
I also have no idea what's the point of collecting gold. I only ever found one NPC that sell you something, a chest key, and I never found the corresponding chest i could use it on. So that was a waste.
It's so..... bad? But I love it. It's like the dev wanted to incorporate a lot of roleplaying elements which ended up going unused because the story only last for 4 hours and it's a game on the gameboy with no save or password features. It asks you to just pretend what you're doing is meaningful and then it's over and you had enough fun to not question it much. I love it.
Still, i'm pretty confused by everything about it. The menu has a "Talk" and "Take" options that doesn't serve any purpose because those can be accomplished with the A button. There is also a "look" option that accomplishes the same as "search" but doesn't reveal any hidden items. So only "Search" and "Player" have an actual function. Speaking of search, it's only required in the first room, then it's only used for optional hidden items, but also they are so rare it's not really worth the trouble. In the inventory screen there are slots for head, pants and boots equipments, but you never find any through the entire game. There are also two "drop" buttons that functions exactly the same. The game is incredibly easy, so I'm not sure what's the point of giving armor/weapons to your party members considering they only show up during the team battles, and in those they get a sword that one-shot every enemy regardless if they are unarmed or equipped with a bow. So that's another useless feature. Then there's the "Agility" stat, which i couldn't tell a difference if it was low or high at any point.
Speaking of party members, for most of the game you have 4, but for some reason there were only 3 showing up in my party menu. At some point I declined to duel one of my soon-to-be party member and it just..... kinda glitched and teleported me to the next story sequence, skipping the dialog that adds them to my party. It doesn't matter tho because they show up during team battle anyway, and since currently equipped items doesn't matter.... well it didn't change much except i was lacking 6 inventory slots to stock potions and food.
Not that it matters anyway cause my inventory was full 90% of the game, and everytime i encountered a new healing item i would forcibly use the lower tier one on Robin despite only missing 5hp. I ended the game with 11 extra potions.
I also have no idea what's the point of collecting gold. I only ever found one NPC that sell you something, a chest key, and I never found the corresponding chest i could use it on. So that was a waste.
It's so..... bad? But I love it. It's like the dev wanted to incorporate a lot of roleplaying elements which ended up going unused because the story only last for 4 hours and it's a game on the gameboy with no save or password features. It asks you to just pretend what you're doing is meaningful and then it's over and you had enough fun to not question it much. I love it.
1992
would have been a strong 7 if the second half wasn't 90% pixel perfect jump and instakill hazards. good soundtrack tho
2019
I am not allowed to say anything about this game except PLAY IT.
2015
yep, still peak
1998
Every one in a while I boot up this game just for a bit of nostalgia for the early youtube let's play circa 2008-2009 about this game. Played it myself back then and even if there isn't much to do, just running around and finding the cool hidden stuff brings me way back. It's always funny showing this game to friends and they start looking at you weird when you start explaining there is a world map and all the area are interconnected so you can freely explore every zone in the game.
It's fascinating how this silly game can bring so much joy to me for no reasons other than I associates a lot of random events in the game with childhood memories
It's fascinating how this silly game can bring so much joy to me for no reasons other than I associates a lot of random events in the game with childhood memories
1997
This game has immaculate vibes and by far my favorite artstyle for a video game. The presentation hasn't aged a bit, and I love how well the cutscenes are animated. Every member of the cast is likeable and it feels like watching a 90's anime. Gives me nostalgia even though I never played this game before.
Gameplay-wise, it's a bit heh. Definitely serviceable but most of the time it's just hold square and circle-strafe to win. Didn't expect it to be a MetroidVania but I welcome it. Exploring was fun. I hope MM Legends 2 is more of the same but with a refined take on the gameplay so it doesn't stay samey the entire way through.
Gameplay-wise, it's a bit heh. Definitely serviceable but most of the time it's just hold square and circle-strafe to win. Didn't expect it to be a MetroidVania but I welcome it. Exploring was fun. I hope MM Legends 2 is more of the same but with a refined take on the gameplay so it doesn't stay samey the entire way through.
1997
Didn't vibe with newer Tekken games so I popped this one back in just for the hell of it. Ended up spending the entire night unlocking every mode and characters with my friends and then beat each other up. They don't make them like they used to.....
Replayed this again cause I had a tiny craving for a classicvania game. Yeah, it's peak. Everything about this game is so good.
Back when I was a kid my older brother got this game after seeing me struggle so much trying to play BoF IV. He didn't really like it that much, we were big JRPG heads and anything that didn't look or play like Final Fantasy was discarded as a waste of time. I thought it looked pretty cool tho so it always hovered somewhere in the back of my mind.
Over the years i've only heard this game mentioned as the "bad one", "the one that's plays badly", etc etc.
After my BoF IV replay I was willing to give it a shot cause I was always fascinated by the concept of "you're stuck underground and your journey is to make it to the outside world." Turns out I shouldn't ever trust other people's opinion on video games because it was one of the most enjoyable game I've played in the recent years. The combat system is phenomenal, and the constant anxiety of trying to outrun the constantly ticking time limit is something I've never seen in a game before, nor since.
I'm a big sucker for metanarratives, and I get what they were shooting for here. Stumbling through these longs dungeons that have no checkpoints, that constant doomsday clock ticking over your head, the lack of safe area where you can just relax and heal up. You get none of that, you have to spend every little ressources trying to move forward and get no chance to catch your breath. Why would you anyway? The air is disgustingly polluted so there is no reason to stop until the end of your journey.
But by far the best part about this game is those extremely hard and unfair boss fights at the end of each dungeons. I was annoyed at first, but then Bosch said "Protect your friends or save yourself, you can't do both !" and suddenly I understood. They are meant to be unfair because the game gives you a choice every single time: will you start over from a previous save so you can be stronger and more efficient (saving your friends by hurting yourself), or will your be selfish and summon the Dragon to make the boss easy? (Saving yourself by hurting Nina). After struggling for so long I decided Nina shouldn't be the one to suffer for my dumb mistakes, and I replayed the entire game without using the Dragon form until the very end, and I'm so glad I did.
I want to save Nina. TO THE SKY!
Over the years i've only heard this game mentioned as the "bad one", "the one that's plays badly", etc etc.
After my BoF IV replay I was willing to give it a shot cause I was always fascinated by the concept of "you're stuck underground and your journey is to make it to the outside world." Turns out I shouldn't ever trust other people's opinion on video games because it was one of the most enjoyable game I've played in the recent years. The combat system is phenomenal, and the constant anxiety of trying to outrun the constantly ticking time limit is something I've never seen in a game before, nor since.
I'm a big sucker for metanarratives, and I get what they were shooting for here. Stumbling through these longs dungeons that have no checkpoints, that constant doomsday clock ticking over your head, the lack of safe area where you can just relax and heal up. You get none of that, you have to spend every little ressources trying to move forward and get no chance to catch your breath. Why would you anyway? The air is disgustingly polluted so there is no reason to stop until the end of your journey.
But by far the best part about this game is those extremely hard and unfair boss fights at the end of each dungeons. I was annoyed at first, but then Bosch said "Protect your friends or save yourself, you can't do both !" and suddenly I understood. They are meant to be unfair because the game gives you a choice every single time: will you start over from a previous save so you can be stronger and more efficient (saving your friends by hurting yourself), or will your be selfish and summon the Dragon to make the boss easy? (Saving yourself by hurting Nina). After struggling for so long I decided Nina shouldn't be the one to suffer for my dumb mistakes, and I replayed the entire game without using the Dragon form until the very end, and I'm so glad I did.
I want to save Nina. TO THE SKY!